Jaipur: Sachin Tendulkar was the proud owner of the Orange Cap after his innings against Rajasthan on Sunday night, but his sole focus was on the team making it to the semi-finals. Here's more from his interaction with the media.
Excerpts:
On batting well today: Firstly I don’t play cricket to prove anything to anyone. I play for my enjoyment. It was good that in [the] T20 [format] too I did well. The team won, made it through to the semis. I was enjoying my batting a lot today, it was quite challenging. I had to plan for it. In the middle too I had to [be patient] and had to flag the innings and in the end when I had to go for the big shots I luckily managed to get them too and we put up a competitive total in front of them [Rajasthan Royals].
On the match turning after the dropped catch: These things keep happening in the game - sometimes you miss a catch, sometimes you miss a run out. These are part and parcel of cricket - even after this you have to play, you have to score the runs. I think on the whole I think not just the batting but our bowling too is quite strong.
On him being the torch-bearer of his team: I think in this format one day you click and the other day you don’t. It’s difficult when you are improvising so much, it’s difficult to be consistent. But I am hoping that when it is needed the most the batting will fire because they are all [...] talented cricketers and they are all world class players … so at some stage it is going to work out for us. I am hoping that it’s in those big games.
On Rajasthan applying special tactics to counter him: Well I don’t know their tactics, each team has [some], they do plan a lot. Each team does that - it is not only Rajasthan Royals. Whether it is Delhi Daredevils or Deccan Chargers or even us, all the teams plan, but it’s important to go out and execute those plans. And when all the plans fall into place, everything looks fantastic. Like today for us, everything fell into place. Although the start wasn’t the start we were looking for, eventually when we needed [it] we put up a decent total. It’s important to execute those plans.
On MI relying heavily on the domestic talent: No, I thought today [Kieron] Pollard came [through], Pollard played an important role. He scored 25 quick runs. Also [while] bowling, he got Yusuf [Pathan] out. [Lasith] Malinga has been consistent, [Dwayne] Bravo also played and Ryan McLaren [performed] against the Deccan Chargers. All the guys have done their bit. It is just that you don’t see it in a huge quantity, it’s a shorter game, it’s a shorter format. So you are not going to get to see 80-90 runs being scored by a No. 7 or a No. 8 batsman but they have been playing their roles quite brilliantly and also contributing with the ball.
On having scored just 100 runs by the 14th over: I was looking at a 160 target. When Pollard was batting, I thought in the last two overs if we could score some more runs, then there would be a possibility of getting past 165-170. But unfortunately Pollard got out at that stage. But I managed to get a couple of big overs that pushed our total to 175 which we were not thinking of - we were thinking of reaching max 170.
On how it felt to make it to the semis after the disappointment of the first two seasons despite a full squad: Let me correct you, it wasn’t despite having the best squad because the first two seasons we did not have our full squad. In the first season Malinga did not play, I did not play the first seven games, and in the second season Zaheer Khan was not available and a few other important key batsmen were not available either. And that put lot of load on our team. And this season we had, touchwood, full strength. Though in between [Ambati] Rayudu was doing very well in the first couple of games, on the third match he got injured but fortunately he’s back again in the squad. It feels nice to have a full strength squad. We are still missing Abhishek Nayar who’s injured, but it’s been quite good so far.
On having said in Delhi that Sehwag should show him some respect: I will host him well off the field, on the field he still has to show some respect [laughs]. He is a dangerous player, we all know what he is capable of. He has proved [that] every now and then. What does one talk about such a terrific player? Whatever compliments you pay it are not enough. Your browser may not support display of this image.
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